Roasting Bags. The innovation of the cooking bag was a boon to the meat and poultry industry. Use of a cooking bag when roasting, for example, a whole turkey in the oven, provides significant benefits to the consumer or to an institutional chef. The cooking bag reduced the time it took to cook the turkey. The bag allowed the natural juices from the turkey to be kept for later use such as making a natural turkey gravy. Also, the cooking bag, by containing both the turkey and the juices, made clean-up much easier for the cook.
For many years processors and marketers of poultry products, such as turkey and chicken, have tried to sell a roasting bag with the poultry product itself. None of the efforts have been particularly successful.
One effort attempted to place the cooking bag inside the body cavity of the poultry. This had several drawbacks. Consumers did not know what the bag was, and often threw it away with the giblets. The bag was often covered with blood and other fluids, and could transmit naturally occurring pathogens to the kitchen counter when the bag was removed. This resulted in the potential cross-contamination of other foods.
Another effort was to make a roasting bag the bag in which the meat or poultry product was packaged. Unfortunately, consumers who were used to removing the bag before cooking the product did so before they realized they had destroyed the roasting bag. The cooking bag was undesirable for cooks who like to stuff the birds with their own stuffing. And, on occasion, the bags would be perforated during handling or shipping. This also reduced their benefits.
Another attempt was to double-bag the products, with the inner bag being a roasting bag. This was also unsatisfactory because of the difficulty in removing the outer bag without also cutting the inner bag. The double bag also prevented the stuffing of poultry.
A final attempt was to place a bag containing a roasting bag outside the bag in which the product was packaged, but underneath the netting which was placed around the product. Although this idea eliminated the problems described above, it came with its own set of difficulties. During the netting and heat shrinking process, the bag would sometimes slip away from its intended location on the product. The bag would sometimes wrinkle, making the printed information difficult to read. This packaging process was problematic and expensive, and it could not be used for products without netting.
Despite the foregoing problems, because of the popularity and convenience of roasting bags, there is a continued need for an effective and convenient method of providing a roasting bag with the retail sales of meat and poultry products.
Marketing Materials. Many manufacturers have tried to attach marketing materials to products, but attaching such materials to a frozen or refrigerated product with no flat surface has been difficult. Coupons or recipes which are enclosed in or printed directly on the packaging material are often destroyed when the packaging is removed from the product for cooking. Handling the materials can also lead to cross-contamination of other foods if not immediately sanitized.
At least one manufacturer has placed a bag containing a string turkey lifter outside the packaging bag, but underneath netting placed around the turkey product. As mentioned above, this packaging process was problematic and expensive, and it could not be used for products without netting.
There are other problems as well. It is distasteful for consumers to handle materials which are covered with blood or other natural juices from the products. Such materials are often missed by consumers because of a lack of visibility. They are often wrinkled and difficult to read.
From the foregoing, it would be a substantial advancement in the art to have an effective and convenient method of providing marketing and promotional materials with the retail sales of meat and poultry products.